Ifd540 vs Garmin750xi

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landon18

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Landon Scarbrough
Hello I have the ifd540 and was wondering if I should upgrade to the Garmin 750 and is it worth it I love my ifd now but want other people opinions.
Also trying to upgrade the gn530 what Garmin avionics to.
Thanks all
 
The 750 is nice, but I would never pull a 540 to install the 750. If you have a 530 as well, the sliding in another 540 would be a great option. No rewiring required.
 
Jesse Saint said:
The 750 is nice, but I would never pull a 540 to install the 750. If you have a 530 as well, the sliding in another 540 would be a great option. No rewiring required.
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ok thanks but could I do away with the 530
Also does the 750 do comm 2 as the weather too or do you have to get another type of one.
 
luvflyin said:
This guy is a guru on the pros and cons of those navigators. @midlifeflyer
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That's very kind although I'm not sure about the "guru" label. Avionics "geek" might be closer to the truth.

@landon18, I'm no guru. I'm just a pilot/instructor who has has used and train a variety of avionics and seem to understand them. I think they are equivalent units. The GTN750 does a few things better than the IFD 540/550 and the IFD 540/550 does a few things better than the GTN750 but those differences tend to be small. If you want to see some of the differences, I have three videos where I compare them (and there have been updates to both units since then) If you want to take a look, they are in a Garmin-Avidyne Comparison playlist on my YouTube Channel.

I wouldn't think of a movement from one to the other an "upgrade" or a "downgrade." If I already had a 540, the only reason I can think of that would lead me to consider changing would be doing a full steam gauge to Garmin glass conversion - G5, GI275, G3X, or other Garmin PFD, and a GFC500 or 600 autopilot. Other avionics can do the job but Garmin is designed from the bottom up to work with Garmin.
 
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@landon18 - Perhaps post a couple pics of your entire panel if you are looking for changes? As well as what your budget is for panel modifications?
 
Choose a side. Go all avidyne or all garmin if you’re itchy to spend. We have a 430w and 496 for weather. when we pulled our GMX-200 we had opportunity to put in a new avidyne 550 in for a sweet deal. So we did that. We were under impression that avidyne would Crossfill to the 430 then to the 496. Wrongo. We were also under impression that the 550 would take the XM weather same way 496 did. Wrongo.
That being said the 550 is a great box and love it. Wish it got along with everything garmin but get why it doesn’t. It’s our club ship.I trusted other partners ‘research’.
some quick googling would have told me it won’t crossfill and the weather wasn’t as easy as he thought. My fault for not looking into more.
 
When our 530 was on its last leg, my partner and I debated between the 750 and the 540 for our 182N. We went with the 540 solely due to cost. The having to move the whole stack around and just slide in the 540 was a major savings on its own. We have it with two G5, 345xpdr, and STEC 50. We are very happy with the decision we made. And like it was already said, they both have the pros, they both have 5here cons. But if you already have a 540 and are happy with it, why switch.
 
I fly airplanes with a Garmin 400, 430, G1000, and 650/650Xi. My personal aircraft has the 650Xi.

The one thing I really like about the 650/650Xi is the touch screen. Once you get used to it, it is really slick and quick. It is also a bit of a pain in turbulence, but not that bad once you figure out how to place your other fingers to stabilize the one you are using.

The nice thing is, Garmin uses similar logic across their products. Not exactly, but similar. But also different enough to sometimes be pain. :D

But WHY, did they change the way the menus scroll between the 650 and the 650Xi???? The 650 scrolls the main menu up and down. The 650Xi scrolls it left to right. And the default for the knob in the 650 is to tune the com, on the Xi it is to change pages.
 
Pinecone said:
The one thing I really like about the 650/650Xi is the touch screen. Once you get used to it, it is really slick and quick. It is also a bit of a pain in turbulence, but not that bad once you figure out how to place your other fingers to stabilize the one you are using.
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My list of the combinations I've flown is too long :D
I absolutely agree with you that one great advantage of Garmin is its use of similar logic. An Garmin → Avidyne transition (or vice versa) has a greater learning curve than a Garmin → Garmin transition (the 480 excepted).

But since we're talking comparison, the IFD has both touch screen and button/dial capability for just about every function.
 
750TXi for the win! Especially if someone has or will acquire a Garmin EFIS of some type or use the GFC-500 autopilot. The Smart Glide feature is worth its weight in gold.

I have friends who own both 540's or 550's and 750TXi's in different planes they own. Both friends say Avidyne support doesn't hold a candle to Garmin's support.
 
NordicDave said:
Both friends say Avidyne support doesn't hold a candle to Garmin's support.
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They would have to actively work against you to be worse than garmin, so that's saying something.
 
NordicDave said:
I have friends who own both 540's or 550's and 750TXi's in different planes they own. Both friends say Avidyne support doesn't hold a candle to Garmin's support.
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YMMV. I have not had to use Garmin's support, but as an early Avidyne IFD540 adopter I had some initial install issues and their support was very good. I also had one other issue a couple years later that required sending the unit back to Avidyne (it was one of the first built and needed a hardware upgrade that was introduced early in the product lifecycle) and that was handled easily as well. ‍No complaints.
 
I have only had one interaction with Garmin support and it was handled well and we got the issue resolved. Can't ask for more than that.
 
A huge advantage of Avidyne is that you can have an iPad that mirrors it. You can choose the size of the ipad and its location exactly how/where you want it, and it's natively a touchscreen. To me, this is the single most important differentiation between the two, and the reason I will go with Avidyne when I upgrade my panel.
 
I have had mostly positive experiences with Garmin all around. If I were going to start a panel from scratch, I would lean toward Garmin. But if you already have an IFD or if you are only replacing a GNS 430/530, then I think the bang-for-buck is securely in Avidyne's corner.
 
I have a 540 in my C172N and a 550 in my C210M w/10.3 firmware. Can't say much about the 750 since I don't fly with one. But there are enough buttons around the 540/550 bezel so I can get to most pages very quickly.
I get my air data from a Aspen E5 in the 210 so the 550 makes a great combo for my STec 3100. Plus with a single mfgr the Jeppesen updates are cheaper. BTW my Avidyne Jepp bill is about $775/year for nav, obstacles, and charts.
 
Meh.

I installed a 650 in my M20K.

We last installed an Avidyne in a Lance behind some Dynon HDX’s.

I could buy a flying 4 seater for the difference in price without losing a gram of functionality.

Garmin just charges highway robbery prices.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just to restart this thread and for information since you've probably made your decision, I've had both with the 750 installed in my last plane. I had a 750 installed in my Mooney J in 2012 through Sarasota Avionics then when I bought my next plane in 2020 Garmin kept putting off delivery of the 750xi so I installed the IFD 540. It took a little getting used to since it was different than the 750 but it was very functional. On my latest plane, it was a difficult decision but I installed the 750. On all the planes I installed (hard wired) either the Aera 796 or in the last two planes the Aera 760 so I could get additional weather/traffic/flight plan information. Both GPS's worked perfect with them.

Garmin support has been excellent any time I phoned.
I found the same with Avidyne. I had an issue with the weatherscope not working that my installer nor Avidyne could figure out and ended taking it to a better avionics shop with more experience. Avidyne was very conscientious and even phoned back twice trying to solve the problem.
Occasionally both companies don't know the answer but have lead me into the right direction.

Garmin has some excellent video's for managing the functions.
Avidyne's are much more informative. (a little boring sometimes but everything is there)

The screen on the 750 is larger therefore viewing a plate/weather/traffic is much better than on the Avidyne

Access to the flight plan and making changes is much easier and faster (less moves) on the Avidyne. Plus the Avidyne has more information available on their main screen. I also liked the workability of the flight plan over the Garmin.

A huge plus with the Avidyne is their free WiFi and bluetooth. It will tie in with their own IFD 100 or Foreflight. With the Garmin you have to pay $1500 to either buy and instal their FS 210 or their FS 510. Function-able but a pain.

My summary is Avidyne is more functionable but limited because of their screen size. Their inability to work with the full function of Garmin products is a consideration. Cost is less than Garmin especially if removing a GNS 530.
Garmin is as functionable but with more steps to get to where you want. Screen size and the ability to add other Garmin products plus the resale value of a plane with Garmin has to thought out also.

Basically zero problems with either GPS's after then install.
 
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I wish I could buy stock in Avidyne. The company is going to be very profitable as people decide to not spend the installation cost to replace the 430s Garmin is ending their support.
 
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